Hey,

I can't stress how important this is! Ok, so the deal is that this extremely helpful modeller spent a couple weeks modelling an interior set in 3D Studio Max 7 for me... for free! Yes, this was very kind of him. He sent me the .max file, and I downloaded the Max 7 Trial so I could view it. From there, I exported it to .3ds within Max, where the following prompt came up:

"Preserve Max's Texture Coordinates?"

Of course, I chose YES.

Anyway, I'll cut to it. Here's a pic I took of the MAX file (I just stuck an Omni light in there):

As you can see, it looks great. Now, because it had to be exported as a 3DS file, all the textures had to be added separately in Poser. So, here is the 3DS version rendered within Poser, without textures:

You will notice that the geometry is pretty decent, though the depth is off (may be because of the cameras). However, you will also notice that the doors are way off, as they levitate above the ground. The 3DS file in MAX looks fine, so Poser is messing it up for some reason.

Now, the main problem is obviously the textures. They are showing up way wrong, and some of the walls and objects stretch them. Here is the original floor & ceiling texture:

The lower left is the floor texture, I think the upper stuff is the ceiling texture, and I don't know what the lower right is. Basically, that shape is the shape of the model (a hallway). The actual, uncompressed size is roughly 3000x3000, but I had to shrink it down for obvious purposes here.

I threw the floor texture on, as well as the wall textures in Poser to demonstrate how the mapping is way off:

It's tough to see, but because the mapping coordinates didn't transfer, the textures didn't apply right.

Anyway, I'm sorry for being vague and newbish since I am pretty new to this stuff (which is why someone else did the model), though I do understand most of Poser 4. I'm wondering if I can somehow fix these problems and achieve a Poser render that's close to the Max render (aiming for a near perfect transfer).

If anyone could help me out (and please be specific since I am newbish), it would be MUCH appreciated. Thanks!

P.S.- After reading this message, I seem to come off as angry, but really I'm not... I'm just trying to be specific and to the point.

have you tried getting the Habware exporter & exporting as .obj rather than .3ds?
also the walls may need to have split vertices to combat P4 smoothing(most apparent on the door & wall pictures) "P.S.- After reading this message, I seem to come off as angry, " no,not at all :) Cheers Stefan

Message edited on: 05/27/2005 01:55

Well I should have tried this first, so I apologize for not doing so :-) But yes, I just realized that Max exports OBJ files, so I did that and voila -- perfect geometry in Poser. Unfortunately, texture mapping is still a big problem. I'd hate to sound like a moron, but how would I go about splitting these vertices? Stonemason: By the way, your Urban Sprawl is amazing (as are all your other DAZ products).

By the way, in 3DS Max 7 you don't even need the Habware exporter anymore... it will export/import OBJ files with a natively included plugin!

"By the way, in 3DS Max 7 you don't even need the Habware exporter anymore... it will export/import OBJ files with a natively included plugin!" Yeah I noticed. That's why I didn't realize Max had an OBJ exporter right away because I have Max 4 (Max 7 is just a trial) and I don't think it ever had an option to export OBJ files. Now if I could cure the whole texture problem, I just might die a happy man.

"splitting these vertices?"

you'd need to get UV Mapper(free or pro) & use the split vertices function,then save the split obj,I think in max you could select all the verts & hit 'break'..but uv mapper has always given me better results..all your doing is seperating the vertices from each other..to reverse it you'd use the 'weld' function.
btw,Poser 6 has a 'creasing feature' that does away with splitting verts
the equivalant function in max is the 'smooth' modifer..you just set a level you want the model to be smoothed by.
& yet another way to combat smoothing is to add an inside edge or an extra bevel..but thats just a waste of polys

"perfect geometry in Poser. Unfortunately, texture mapping is still a big problem."

yes,getting decent uv mapping out of max is another story alltoegether..lol..I dont have Max 7 so may not be of any help.chances are you just need to play with the settings in the exporter..but it can be done :)
some tips for exporting & keeping your maps intact:
if you have lots of objects that you want to keep as groups on export,reset the pivot of each object,then group as one and export(you can reset centers under the hiearachy tab)
or ...attach everything as one mesh(& reset the pivot to center),if you don't need to move anything in Poser & the scene is one single object then this is the easiest way.under the hiearchy tab you'll find your reset options,I just select something in scene then hit 'affect pivot only' & then 'centre to object'.(you'll notice the gizmo jump back to the center of the object)

hope that helps,there's lot's of variables & I know I've missed some...centering may not even be the problem here,but it's worth a shot ;)

Cheers
Stefan

Message edited on: 05/27/2005 03:18

in max 5 in the object properties when you are in poly mode or something ( sorry I loose more Max info everyday ) there is a split verts option. I think that it is called break apart or similar.

Oh wow, UV Mapper is extremely confusing!! I loaded the OBJ file into UV Mapper, then hit the Split Vertices option. When I loaded the new OBJ into Poser, I noticed that a lot of the geometry was very blocky and pixelated, and the stretching problem still wasn't solved. Did I do something wrong? Also, I noticed that UV Mapper has options for importing and exporting UVs. Is there possibly a way to export just the UVs from Max, import them into UV Mapper and the OBJ model, then voila problem solved? Yeah probably not but we're getting there at least. Thanks for the help so far. I'm confident that the problem will be solved soon.

" I noticed that a lot of the geometry was very blocky and pixelated, " not sure what you mean by that,possibly you split at too low an angle,uv mapper lets you specify what angle the verts are split at..30% is usally plenty ..5% would give very sharp edges splitting verts isn't related to your initial question on uv map stretching..it's just something I noticed looking at the untextured model. "Is there possibly a way to export just the UVs from Max, " I've never had any luck doing that,you could give it a try though,load a uvw modifier in max and save the uv's,then import those uv's into uv mapper..but again,this has never worked for me. if you want to send me the max file I could possibly have a go at exporting it for you,..or at least see why you can't do it. Cheers Stefan

Here are the settings I use with Habaware, I've never had any problem exporting UVs. Be aware that there is a bug in Habaware that prevents scaling multi-group exports at other than 1:1 (use Maz's Objaction Scaler Instead). Didn't know Max 7 could do OBJ native, maybe I'll finally have to buy it (only $2,700!), I'm still on 3.1.

I copied that export data and did the same thing, but the textures still weren't right (Poser tiled the texture exactly how it is, whereas only parts of the texture is used). It's okay, though. I've worked around the problem by rendering the model through Max, then using that as a background in Poser, where I can render characters over it and match lighting. I then use After FX to mask any foreground objects. As long as I keep camera movements slight or static, I can just match keyframes, and use the OBJ file in Poser to help match the camera to the background rendered in Max. The result is the same (though slightly more work), but I'm comfortable with it at least. Thanks for the help, though.